Chinese New Year Greetings (Year of the Monkey) | Learn Chinese Now

Hi everyone, and welcome to Learn Chinese Now, brought to you by italki.com. 新年快乐! Really sorry, we weren't able to get a video out in time for Chinese New Year. We were busy working with our friends over at Off the Great Wall on a collaboration video about New Year. You can check that out here. It's pretty cool. Go watch it. But, there are still some New Year phrases that you should know. And this year is the year of the monkey in the Chinese Zodiac. Monkey in Chinese is 猴子. You can see the radical on the left side of the character is used in the names of many animals such as dog, and other animals have different versions of it like cat and pig. If you want to brush up on your Chinese Zodiac, check out our video on the Chinese Zodiac. So what should you do to wish people a Happy New Year in the year of the monkey? Well, you can say all the usual things such as 新年快乐,恭喜发财, etc. But you can also say 猴年行大运. This basically means have good luck in the year of the monkey. 猴年 means the year of the monkey, 行 means to do or to carry out, and 大运 is literally big luck. We can translate it as a lot of luck or just as good luck. Although it's already the new year, the celebration is actually 15 days long, and my favourite day is still to come. The last day is the Lantern Festival, 元宵节, which this year falls on February 22nd. You get to see all types of lanterns and some quite spectacular scenes like this mass release of lanterns every year in Taiwan. Traditionally, everyone eats these small glutinous rice balls on 元宵节, which are surprise surprise called 元宵, although the name 汤圆 is also common, and it's the usual name used in Taiwan. 汤圆 come in several flavours including 花生, peanut, 红豆, red bean, and my personal favourite, 黑芝麻, black sesame. You can buy them frozen in any Chinese supermarket, great as a dessert after dinner. Well guys, that's our show for today. Don't forget to wish your friends 红年行大运, and in preparation for 元宵节 on the 22nd, go to a Chinese supermarket and grab yourself a pack of 汤圆. If you're interested in more structured learning of Chinese, why not check out our partner italki.com. Their site offers online Chinese teachers at very affordable prices, and you can take advantage of our buy one get one free deal. Click right here, or click on the link in the description. See you guys next time. 再见